1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical attenuator and more specifically to one which can digitally control IF or RF signals levels by attenuating them.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Previous methods of driving a diode junction with a digital word have relied upon sophisticated networks or a high resolution digital to analog converter with a programmable read only memory, or a combination of the two, in order to produce a temperature compensated linear in db per step attenuator characteristic. There is difficulty in obtaining good temperature compensation with these approaches and they require much higher resolution digital to analog converters.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple, low cost and more reliable means in which to perform the attenuation of electrical signals.
It is a further object of the invention to utilize the inherent attenuation characteristics of a diode junction to result in a very linear in db per step, repeatable, and basically temperature compensated attenuator.